It may be only April, but the door feels like it is beginning to shut on Wakefield Trinity’s Super League status already. They are four points adrift of safety after nine defeats from their opening nine games, but it is the numbers behind those defeats that will cause great concern to supporters of one of rugby league’s grandest old clubs.
They have scored just 47 points in those nine games, and 24 of those came on the opening night against Catalans. That means that from their past eight matches they are not even averaging a try a game. In fact the Leigh winger Josh Charnley, who scored two tries in this commanding win to take his season tally to 12, has more points to his name than do Wakefield.
The pressure is already mounting on the new Trinity head coach, Mark Applegarth, and his side, who were booed off here. They certainly provided plenty of effort but the numbers do not lie: if they do not execute better, they will not even compete in games, let alone win enough to survive this season and extend their Super League stay into a 25th successive campaign.
“Every single week has got to be like a cup final,” Applegarth said, before insisting he was the right man to turn their fortunes around. “I’ve been asked this question since round two; of course I think I’m the right man. I don’t fear it [losing his job] because I can’t control it.”
Applegarth’s side have now failed to score five times in nine games, too: a Super League record.
Wakefield’s woes were summed up inside the opening half-hour here. They dominated in terms of both possession and territory but failed to make it count, and when Leigh scored tries through Gareth O’Brien and Ben Reynolds in the nine minutes before the break, a 10-0 lead for Leigh at the interval felt sizeable given Wakefield’s attacking issues.
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“The direction we’re looking at is the playoffs,” the Leopards’ head coach, Adrian Lam, said. “Seven of the last eight teams to come up have gone straight back down, but we’ve got high expectations here.”
Leigh now have won four games since returning to Super League and look increasingly safe, particularly given this result.
They were far too good for Wakefield after the break, scoring four more tries, including two well-taken scores for Charnley. They punished a pitiful second-half display from Wakefield all too easily, with Lachlan Lam and Joe Mellor also crossing for tries.
